One of the reasons most couples choose natural birth is to avoid interventions. However, avoiding interventions should not be at the core of your reasoning for natural birth.

The reason? This will cause you to focus too much on learning about interventions, potentially building up more fear about them instead of focusing on the things you really need to do to actually avoid them.

Things such as learning about how to eat for pregnancy, labor and optimal postpartum healing, what kind and level of exercise you should be getting so you have the right amount of strength and stamina, without burning yourself out for labor and birth. Further, you need to learn how to communicate with a care team - especially if you end up with a different care team than you expected, and get clarity on how you will need to be supported during labor and birth so you and your birth partner are prepared to help each other.

These are just some of the areas that expectant couples miss when they focus on learning about every intervention and how to avoid them when in truth, the best way to avoid them is to be prepared for birth physically and mentally.

Ultimately, this means stepping away from Google and doing diligent research on yourself, learning about your physical needs, noticing your physical interactions with the environment, your emotional needs and your emotional interactions with the environment. Reflecting back on what you needed during stressful times, during difficult times, when you were in unexpected pain, when you were sick and when you were in expected pain from taking on a physical or mental challenge that pushed you to your limits.

When you gain clarity on these aspects of your life, you will find you gain clarity on these aspects as they will present in labor, and with that, you have all the basic resources and wisdom you need to help your birth partner and birth team support you, you just have to learn how to communicate it. With that formula, you don't have to focus on avoiding interventions, you will naturally avoid any intervention you don't need because you have the tools and you know how to use them.

Want more on this topic? Check out these two episodes on the Unschooled Homebirth podcast wherever you get podcasts:

Episode 43: Are Evidence Bsed Medicine and Research Useful for Birth?

Episode 44: Natural Birth and Technological Distractions